The Forbearing Corruption
by Unknown Grimm
Summary: Adrift in space, the Forward Unto Dawn drifts towards the unknown planet seen in Halo 3's legendary ending. What if that planet was Aegis 7?
1. Spartan

**_The Forebearing Corruption_**

Foreword: I do not own Halo or Dead Space, nor any characters, settings, places, objects, etc. related to them.

A crossover of Dead Space and Halo.

**WARNING**: Canon ends at the end of the prologue.

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_"Wake me…when you need me."_

On Earth stood a memorial, made of black rock in the shape of a pelican's wing, the carrier of those who fought and died in the Human-Covenant War. On the pedestal commemorating those who had fallen, stood the Admiral Hood.

_"For us, the storm has passed. The war is over…_

_But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark…and did not return, for their decision required courage beyond measure! …They ennobled us all. They will not be forgotten."_

In that small, barren, silent service, Stacker's voice rang out, "**Present arms**!"

The seven marines did so, battle rifles feeling more murderous and cold than ever. They fired simultaneously; their 21-gun salute.

_***BANG***_

Among the deceased was Admiral Jacob Keyes, Pvt. Manuel Mendoza, Captain Carol Rawley…

_***BANG***_

…Fleet Admiral Harper, Cpl. Perez, Pvt. Mackenzie…

_***BANG***_

…Sgt. Avery Johnson, Commander Miranda Keyes, and etched into the wing itself, John-117.

As Terrence Hood walked away from the memorial, he dropped his head in sorrow. That man, known by the ODSTs as a '_freak,_' saved his life too many times to count. When Hood was determined to stay on Earth, the Spartan plunged into their enemies. John succeeded, but at the cost of his own life.

Terrence could see more of a hero in that Petty Officer than he could see in himself…

…Meanwhile, 'Forward Unto Dawn' was drifting without power, and John-117 in a cryogenic tube. The ship was drifting towards a planet...

**_…with a mining ship in orbit._**

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Prologue end. Please feel free to leave a review, but remember! This is my first upload!


	2. Pulled In

'Ello. Adding the First Chapter.

Once again, I own NOTHING in this writing, except for the storyline alterations.

Along the story, I'll be putting in some references to Bungie, and the game, "Dead Space." For instance, try to find as many references to '7' as you can!

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_Above Aegis 7 was the_ Ishimura_, pride and glory of the CEC. She had a chunk of rock the size of two Russias tethered precariously above the planet, kept from falling only by 14 gravity tethers._

_They did not seem to think the giant rock mass was their priority, for they found the Artifact._

_In the_ Ishimura_, unitologists were exuberant. They had found the Red Marker, their relic of Altman and his teachings. They had no idea of what was also on it. They overlooked the deaths of many colonists who were on the planet._

_The _Forward Unto Dawn _orbited Aegis, and was eventually found by the planet cracker. Captain Matthius ordered the ship to be towed in and searched._

_Slowly, and with only a few spare tethers, the ships docked alongside one another, and gravity was restored to the_ Dawn.

_The ship had managed to get through the Ark's Portal nearly entirely, only a few feet of her tail end sliced off. 'Vadam and John, both in cryogenic pods; were found and released by the _Ishimura's_ crew…_

John woke up to see human faces behind the cryogenic pod's glass door. Manually opening the pod, he walked out to find three odd-shaped pistols aimed at his head. Normally, the Spartan would have taken out such threats, but these were _human_.

Looking over, he saw Thel'Vadam also aimed at. *_The elite's got to have a lot of self-control not to take them out.*_

Raising his arms in submission, he was made to board the mining ship and meet the captain, with a red-haired woman behind him, a pistol at his back. By how the other crewmembers interacted with her, John assumed she was a commander of the ship's police force.

John sat down on an executive chair, locking his armor joints to appear sitting down without accidently breaking the chair with half a ton of armor. The former heretic had the comfort of actually sitting, but with the discomfort of the awkwardness between him and the chair, strictly designed for human seating. The captain turned and asked,

"Welcome to the _Ishimura_, my name is Captain Benjamin Matthius. May I have the leisure of knowing your names?"

The Chief spoke up first, "Petty Officer John."

The Arbiter followed with, "Thel'Vadam. Were it not for my heresy, I too would also have a title."

This made John crack a smile under his helmet. Matthius looked at Thel'Vadam with a sort of mix between curiosity, disgust, and contempt.

"A heretic, you say? Not one who's separated from Unitology, I hope."

The Sanghili surprised the unitology devout by stating, "I have never heard of such a religion."

The Captain grunted off this piece of news with apathy. He did not feel like arguing his zeal with infidels today…especially not with one of a different race.

"No matter. What does matter is whether or not you have arrived on the _Ishimura_ with clean intentions."

Once more, the former arbiter spoke.

"We came not in hostility. Our ship was adrift, and we stumbled upon your…planet cracker, as you call it. Is it similar to planet glassing?"

Matthius had trouble hiding his contempt for the alien.

"Err…Commander, would you mind taking these, uh, guests to spare living quarters? Perhaps they would like to join the crew, temporarily, while we fix and refuel their ship?"

The Spartan nodded in approval, while Vadam uttered a "yes." (earning another wince from the captain)

The next day, the two war veterans, along with an additional mass of crewmembers from the _Ishimura_, salvaged what they could from the _Dawn._

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Matthius. Quite the rascist, isn't he? I mean no offense by adding inter-species rascism, but human nature will be human nature.

Leave a review, eh?


	3. A New Life

NEXT ONE!

I don't own the Halo franchise or anything in it. Nor do I own Dead Space.

S.P.A...

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_Colin recklessly nudged the transport controls in the direction he wanted, one of the Ishimura's docks. Looking back at his wife, her neck half sliced open, he then directed his attention back at the cockpit view. He didn't know that would be the last time he saw his Jennifer…human._

_Above the rumbling of the transport engine, Colin heard the intercom crackle to life, as Dock 17's overseer blared out his warning._

_"Transport G-61, this is Dock 17. **Why the hell are you out there?** You dropped from Dock 25. Return there, this one's already full."_

_"Negative, Dock 17. My wife's hurt badly. You're the closest dock; any other'll take too long to reach, **she might be dead by then!"**_

_There was a short pause in the intercom_

_"State her injuries, G-61."_

_"Multiple cuts, mostly self-inflicted. One foot is severely cut up, there's glass shards embedded. Her neck…her neck's half cut open. Laser pick, so it's already cauterized, Dock 17."_

_"It's too late, G-61, she's already dead. Besides, even if we weren't already full, we'd still have the dock locked down. Too many freaky murder incidents, we don't want to take any chances. Reports state 25's full too. You might have to head back to the colony."_

_"Negative, Dock; _**_she…_we_ aren't going back to that hellhole!"_**

_Colin activated the thrusters, and began to rush towards the dock. However, the overseer had begun to close the dock opening, the solid metal gates rumbling in protest against being moved from their place._

_The gate was nearly closed, but Colin managed to get through when he activated the shuttle's port boosters. The craft barely managed to get through, and when it did, smashed into the dock, sending explosions and debris in a wide area._

_Looking back, he couldn't find his dead Jennifer, and assumed it was because of the jolts. He trudged to the door opening, and banged his head against the door frame in exasperation and grief. **He could've saved her.**_

_His grief was short-lived, as he then felt a sharp pain in his lower stomach. Thinking it was guilt pangs, he went to put a hand on his aching gut, but found that something was sticking out of it._

_**A large blade made of bone was protruding from his abdomen**._

_In his shock, he never saw Jennifer's fanged mouth chew into his neck, ripping apart arteries, muscle, and flesh. As he died, he saw in his blurry vision a bat-like thing flying up to his shoulder and sticking what looked like a meaty straw up his throat._

_By the time Colin Barrow died, he was already remade into a dog-like necromorph with fused legs._

_Moments later, two P.S.C.I. personnel investigated the bloody shuttle, but found nothing…_

John, 'Vadum, and five P.S.C.I. members were seated in Tram 131-4, heading to the _Dawn_. The police members were slightly nervous, being near the two newcomers.

John didn't blame them for their paranoid looks. Not many were comfortable around a seven-foot man and an eight-foot monster. Particularly not two who were clad in heavy armor.

The tram halted to a rumbling stop, and the group stepped out to see the conjoined UNSC frigate conjoined with the CEC planet cracker, like two armored giants hand in hand. The P.S.C.I. member Dobbs stepped forward first, and was surprised to see a missile heading straight for him.

John grabbed the crewmember, just before the missile hit him. It hit the dock instead, and luckily, it was a fluke. The archer missile simply bounced off with a loud **"CLANG**."

Vincent was now aiming her divet pistol at the missile's origin, and would have fired, had the Spartan not lowered her arm.

"Calm down, ma'am. There won't be another missile, I promise."

"**Oh?!** How can you be so sure?"

"Ma'am, that missile was fired by an AI construct…more of a person than a construct now. She won't fire again."

Allisa's suspicion gave way to surprise. "_'She?'_ There's another one of you on there?"

"Yes, ma'am. Kind of."

The seven boarded the frigate, when John muttered, '_Cortana_.' A light blue hologram flitted onto a nearby pedestal, depicting a cybernetic mirror of the original Spartan trainer.

"John! I didn't see you when I fired the missile! I'm sorry!"

"No harm was done. Access the _Ishimura_'s docking log, it will bring you up to date."

Brightening at the thought of _her_ Spartan unharmed, the metastable AI smiled via hologram. Nodding to the armor-clad giant, she flitted out of existence while the bewildered Alissa stared coldly at John.

"You just told your program to access our mainframe, idiot. Now I'll have to signal in a mainframe shield."

"Don't bother, ma'am. She'll get in anyway."

They were interrupted by Thel's reappearance, with an energy sword handle buckled onto his armor and two sentinel beams in each hand. Nodding at John, the elite gestured over to two more beams and a plasma rifle he had stockpiled, and where the other four P.S.C.I. members were excitedly examining.

"There were other ones, Demon, but they," once again gesturing to the police force, "would only allow anything that may have been useful for their mining purposes. Oh, Spartan, it also turns out your construct was modifying them…"

"Dobbs, show the Spartan what I mean."

The former Arbiter's command was answered with an excited yet very respectful "Yes, sir!" from the police rookie, as he fired a single shot. Handing the rifle over to the Spartan, John's HUD saw the battery charge slowly return to 100%.

The seven heard a blaring alarm, and over the intercom; Matthius buzzed John and Vincent, telling them to head back to his station.

Something was amiss.

While nobody was paying attention, the AI decided she would be more useful in the _Ishimura_'s system, and concealed herself in the ship's vast databanks.

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Summary: Cortana's metastable, which means she's now considered "human." Please also note that Chapter 3's taking place during "Downfall."

Please leave a review!


	4. Regret

Chapter up!

I've gotten two review so far of really short chapters, but I'll be making up for that. The story, when complete, will have 14 chapters. Eh?

_S.P.A.R..._

I don't own Halo or Dead Space.

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_Following the command of Matthius, John boarded Tram A-51, headed for the ship's P.S.C.I. station. Adjacent was the officer that seemed so wary of the alarm, even shouting out things like "Finally," or "About damn time."_

_Now she seemed to be surveying him thoroughly, as he had turned from a demon into a human in a second. __**Just like every other one he had known that was around him for a while, with the exception of Dr. Hasley.**__ Breaking the silence, Alissa spoke up._

"_You've dealt with incidents like what you've seen before, right? I mean, you looked like you barely regarded the tapes of that weird shit, like they were just like any other thing you've seen."_

_She was referring to the short video footage, they'd seen, where the bloody reanimated were chasing down and killing crewmembers._

"_Ma'am, obviously this isn't the same galaxy I was born in. That 'weird shit' looks like something I've dealt with before. If it is, then I'm sad to say your ship is, in an unprofessional term, screwed."_

John got off where one of the videos had shown. He held out a sentinel beam, waiting for one of those monsters to jump out. He had seen it happen before, first hand. Even if it wasn't the same species.

Sure enough, two of them burst out of a vent opening. Their torso appeared to be torn open, and two hands were protruding from them. The original arms were now stick-like, with their hands stretched open, to accommodate the spear-like bone protrusions that now hung out of them. Their heads shone with a bright anger, their dead eyes unseeing.

Using his usual method, he unleashed a plasma beam at one of their torsos. The sheer force of that forerunner construct tore the necromorph in half, while the other one charged at him. The Spartan reacted by sawing off the monster's arms.

_But it kept on coming at him. The one torn in half walked on its bone spears, using them as makeshift legs._

The sentinel beam turned on the running one's legs. They melted off under the plasma beam. The crawling one had its head shorn off next.

_**But they kept on coming. One of them barely flinched at its head being taken off, and the other was crawling along using its teeth.**_

Deciding not to use his beam, in case any more might appear and he'd have to use it, he stomped on the sad remainder of two crew members, ending their pitiful existence. This was a bad move, because his boots resounded on the metal floor. Had the Spartan not been in the doorway, he'd have been surrounded.

What looked like the entire morgue staff and body count was now rushing at him. One came up behind him, and nearly gutted John.

_Nearly_

Turning around, the super-soldier punched the guts out of it, tore off its arms, and proceeded to slice the monster apart with its own utensils of death. Hurling the bone blades at the oncoming horde, John sealed off the exit. Remembering to seal also the door's energy barrier, the Spartan ran as if he had an inbuilt stasis pack to an oncoming tram. The surprised engineers inside found himself or herself with the seven-foot giant, who came in via forcing the doors open for a second.

_Behind him, the door burst apart. At its feet lay a pile of organic remains, along with shreds of what once was an explosive limb._

Back with the P.S.C.I squad, 'Vadum found the warped remains of what was once a murderer. Dobbs went up to investigate the corpse, and used a probe to find out what happened.

"Hey, Thel, do you want to take a look at this? It looks like someone…or something…tore through his abdomen and split it wide open. Not a very pretty sight, eh?"

Thel did so, and saw the corpse open its milky, sightless eyes. They were staring furiously at the probing police member. It swung its bladed arm at the rookie, but never met its mark.

The former Arbiter would not let one he favored die by these monsters so easily. His energy sword exploded to life as the bony arm swung, and met a sword of pure energy. It went flying away, to hit nothing but the metal wall where it clung in place by its sheer momentum. 'Vadum's other hand grabbed Dobbs and threw him out of harm's way, as his blade filleted the reanimated corpse.

_He would not let the one who looked up to him like a hero in this alien-hostile place die._

A slashing nurse rushed from the curtains, to be shot down by the P.S.C.I. squad. The newly arriving Alissa regarded Thel.

"Get out of here. It's not safe, and you might be needed later."

"I would do so, human, but he," pointing his sword arm at the rookie, "almost died. He respects me, unlike any other here. I will not leave him to die."

Running at the former Arbiter, Alissa pulled out her divet and shoved it up his lower mandibles.

"Get the hell out of here now, freak. I am not gonna let you die for the rookie. Not by these _things_. Get the fuck out of here, or I am regarding you as an insurrectionist. Shoot to kill."

Thel could see she wanted him out of danger, and she did not think he could handle the fiends from death. The pistol rammed up his mouth was a good sign of such a message. Sighing compliance, he unhooked his plasma rifle and gave it to her.

"The undead you see here, they quaver at the feel of plasma. Aim for their blades."

With that, he leaped into a vent and made his way out. Along the way, he could hear the roars of Necromorphs behind him. He could hear the scream of Dobbs as he was slaughtered…

Getting out of the tram, John strode up a mostly clean corridor, attempting to reach out for any survivors in med bay 7. He found only one.

A blonde-haired woman, senior medic by the looks of it, was sitting in a chair with a hypodermic needle in her hand. John's HUD, interlaced with _Ishimura_ databanks, scanned its contents as Hyphis-B, a deadly neurotoxin that killed nearly instantly.

The lady turned on a cam-recorder, and began to talk.

"_Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry...I'm sorry about everything._"

The Spartan picked up a light jog. He did not want to interrupt her transmission, unless the worst circumstance he thought of was about to happen.

"_I wish I could just talk to someone...it's all falling apart here; I can't believe what's happening._"

Her hand, clenched around the syringe, twitched slightly.

"_It's strange...such a little thing."_

John saw her other hand move to the camera, to adjust its settings.

"_In the end, it all comes down to just one little thing..."_

The screen widened, to show her with the needle. Realizing what the medic was about to do, John began to try to intervene.

"_I didn't want it to end like this…"_

A green-armored, bulky hand clenched around the needle hand, lowering it gently from her neck. The camera picked up a new, ultra-low, ultra-low voice…

"…_**and it won't."**_

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_Alissa Vincent committed her last heroic action. Charging towards the undead horde after her, she unlocked the vacuum hatch. She died, and those about to devour her, were lost to space. A transmitter fell from her frozen hands…_

…_As the _Kellion_ crept up to the ghost ship._


	5. Tourniquet

Took a bit, not too great. It's a good enough of a try..

I own neither Dead Space nor Halo.

* * *

"_Isaac… it's me. I wish I could talk to you. I'm sorry...I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just talk to someone...it's all falling apart here; I can't believe what's happening. It's strange...such a little thing.."_

The red and steely white colored _Kellion_ roared into view. Her three boosters, though in vacuum, still sounded like some massive behemoth to those onboard.

Isaac Clarke, the _Kellion's_ Ship engineering specialist, had watched the transmission over and over. Disbelief etched the ship's computer expert as she saw him watch it again.

"How many times have you watched that thing?" _'70__th__ time,' thought Clarke._

"Guess you really miss her."

Looking out at the warped space, Daniels nodded at the panels before turning back to Isaac.

"Don't worry. We're almost there. You'll be able to look her up once we're onboard."

"_Sounds like you two have a lot of catching up to do._"

Looking relieved, the dark-complexioned Chief Security Officer announced to the crew, "Alright, everyone, we're here; synching orbit now."

Kendra walked up to Hammond, staring out at the massive monolith the _Ishimura_ had ripped out from Aegis VII.

"All this trouble over a chunk of rock…"

"Mining in deep space is a lucrative business, Ms. Daniels. Aegis 7 is a gold mine, according to prospector's reports: cobalt, silicon, osmium…now, where is she?"

"There she is! We have visual contact."

"So that's _Ishimura._ Impressi—"

Hammond's condescending voice interrupted hers, "The **USG** _Ishimura, _biggest planet cracker in her class…and it looks like they already popped the cork."

And so they had; suspended above the planet, and directly below the ship, was a monolith of vast proportions suspended from fourteen beams from above and below. Chunks of rock were still breaking off from the 'cork's sheer weight.

Something was not right about the ship.

"Why is it all dark? I don't see any running lights."

Ms. Daniels was correct. Not a single light was active aboard the giant craft. The ship, commonly referred to as the "Pillar of Light," was all but. The very darkness from every port made the _Ishimura_ look like a sort of cancer had killed it, snuffing out every light.

Zach, as if this had happened before, turned to one of the pilots. "Corporal, take us closer in and hail them. And stay clear of that debris field, we're here to fix _their_ ship, not the other way around."

After a lot of buzzing on the signaler, the pilot managed to clear the radio way and send his message

"USG _Ishimura_, this is the emergency maintenance team of the USG _Kellion_, responding to your distress call. Come in, _Ishimura_."

There was no answer.

"We're gonna need to boost our signal if their power's low."

"Yes, we know. Boost the signal."

The transmission, replaying in Isaac's head, sounded clearer and, in a way, more forceful.

"More."

"Never heard of a total communications blackout on one of these things, you'd think that with a thousand people onboard, someone would pick up the phone." Kendra was right. The silence from the _Ishimura_, the largest mining city in the CEC, was eerie.

A transmission from the mining leviathan found its way to the _Kellion_. However, it did not sound right; the message was heavily garbled. It was as if the relay had traveled through water before reaching the _Kellion._ Daniels spotted the problem first.

"Busted array, like we thought. Sounds like they're having problems with their encoder. You get us down there, and Isaac and I can fix it, 48 hours max."

Clarke knew he could go far under that dead line, having done repairs on countless encoding towers within numerous fleets. His record was 7 hours. Mr. Hammond curtly nodded and gave the pilots a command.

"Alright, you heard the lady. Take us in, let's see what need fixing."

A bluish light encircled the cockpit's windows, ionized tethers locking on.

"Gravity tethers engaged, automatic docking procedures a go."

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_John had found it helpful to have an AI keeping the security cameras online. He'd managed to avoid those reanimated horrors quite a few times because of her._

_Va'dum and Brennan had holed up under the captain's quarters. They had reported something big moving around outside and above, but the Sangheli found it best to not investigate, for their location might have been compromised._

_Meanwhile, the Spartan had found a relatively clear dock to keep sending beacons from. They weren't particularly clear, sounding more like a drowning cat than a plea for help. But it would alert anyone nearby._

_A crimson and white object outside caught John's eye, as it seemed to careen out of control. He had only three seconds to react and move out of the way, as the smaller craft smashed into Dock G-313. Rubble smashed against his shields, flaring the air around him into a bright, electromagnetic bubble. By the time he got out of the crash field, John's shielding unit was blaring red on his HUD._


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